‘Rolling gun battle’ on South Side about 3 p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN — Shortly before 3 p.m. today, police officers were called to the scene of a two-car shoot out at the corner of Market Street and Florida Avenue on the city’s South Side.

Police said they are searching for a white sport-utility vehicle and a blue sedan. Officers found 16 shell casings in the intersection and one bullet entered a tavern on Florida.

An employee at a nearby business described the situation as a “rolling gun battle.” After arriving at the area to begin their investigation, officers noticed smoke near the scene and got a call saying there was more gunfire and a car had been set on fire on Avondale Avenue, a few blocks from the initial shooting scene.

Police blocked of traffic to both Market and Florida. No injuries have been reported.

Mayor Williams idea of helping with the crime is by initiating ZERO TOLERANCE on everyone. This is called," Hoping to stop criminals at traffic stops, so YPD does not have to do their job stopping crime". Let's just terroize everyone and hope we catch REAL criminals, like the ones with burnt out headlights and loud mufflers (I am being sarcastic here).

Let's face it...it is a black issue. Flush the polical correctness down the toilet! The statistics can back anyone up on this. Look up the inmate population. Look up the graduation rate of black males in urban areas. Look up the stats on black on black crime. This is an epidemic. It is ruing the city of Youngstown. There are too many baby daddies and not enough fathers in the black community. I just find it hard to believe that there are not some strong black men to get this community under controll and lead these young men in the right direction. Look up Bill Cosby's iniative to help the black community. He basically says what I am stating here. The only problem is the blacks resented him for taking this stance. Called him Uncle Tom. It is a nightmare and will only get worse. Someone in this community needs to do something fast!

Ah good. I now have your attention. I was referring not to this specific event, but to the general crime problem in Youngstown (and every other large city in the US). I stand by what I said. Now, will one of you indignant people please come up with a workable solution to the high crime rate in black neighborhoods? Whole generations of people are being lost here.

A sampling of incarceration rates by various demographics. Additional information available in Appendix A-6.

According to data analyzed for this report, as of Jan. 1, 2008 more than 1 in every 100 adults is behind bars. For the most part, though, incarceration is heavily concentrated among men, racial and ethnic minorities, and 20- and 30-year olds. Among men the highest rate is with black males aged 20-34. Among women it’s with black females aged 35-39.

MEN

White men ages 18 or older 1 in 106 All men ages 18 or older 1 in 54 Hispanic men ages 18 or older 1 in 36 Black men ages 18 or older 1 in 15 Black men ages 20-34 1 in 9

Identifying the problem is the easy part. The solution is potentially the most important and difficult the country has ever faced, and unfortunately it will not be implemented. There are too many groups of people in this country who cannot and do not want to face reality. So the deterioration of society will continue until one of several potential outcomes occurs. None of which are positive.

Dr. Gonzo said: "So the deterioration of society will continue until one of several potential outcomes occurs. None of which are positive." I am concerned that there is a very real "point of no return" which many of our cities are headed towards. I feel terrible for black families who are trying to raise their children properly but find it to be an uphill struggle because of what's going on in their neighborhoods.

The black families who are being "strangled" by their environment and culture probably deal with the most adversity of any group in this country. If you are attempting to raise a family, attend school, give effort, work for a living, and make it better for your descendants and society in general you are not viewed with the requisite admiration in the black community. Unfortunately this is because you are not the norm.

The breakdown of the family structure in our society has led us to where we are now. Unless we can retroactively instill values and morals in this children who are now adults or approaching adulthood it is too late.

white drug dealer gets 3 years for murder black drug dealer gets 30 years for attempted murder seems to me if the difference were split they both would be away for at least 15 years, white drug dealer will be selling his poison in three years' blacks and whites alike should be outraged but are they,NO!

I work on the Southside every day. In the last 2 weeks I've been around gunfire 3 times,2dead bodies were found, and there are things going on that you wouldn't believe. Most of this stuff isn't even reported on the news.

A solution: maybe the community needs to take back their streets. I'm quite sure that there are more people fed up over the violence than the people that are committing the crimes. The only thing that really concerns me is the street code of no snitching. Despite what you say or may think, it is real. I am from Youngstown, born and raised, I grew up on the southside and the Sharonline, but currently moved to a larger urban area, and it is just as bad here. I was with someone and we were just having a conversation about the crime rates and another person mentioned that Ytown is known for its Zero Tolerance on no snitching, and what is disturbing is that the witnesses to this has their full names published. It's only a one degree of separation in Ytown. Also people need to complain to their councilmen and women, complain to your mayor and your police chief and police dept., send letters to the newspaper and the news stations, get something together with your church, Ytown has a church on almost every corner, attend the city meetings, there is ways to solve this issue, put pressure on your community leaders, their duties are to serve us we voted for them, write letters to your representatives that are serving you in Columbus and if you want, in DC as well. There is no way we should be scared, pressure the politicians, make them earn and work for your vote!

Y-town, I couldn't agree with you more about the snitching. It's a shame that it has to be that way. I would be scared to death to be the witness telling what I saw. There was a show on the other night about ways that larger communities have taken back their communities. In short, instead of jail time when the DA had evidence against a criminal they gave them the opton to go to group counseling and were given paying jobs in the community they lived in to help them see a better way to live. I haven't stated it very well in this post, but it was a pretty remarkable idea.

Here's the problem with the "No Snitching" thing. People are willing to speak up BUT, the media or newspaper or whomever gets info about these things usually puts the names out there or everything about that person (where they live, what they had on) and blocks out the face as if no one will know who they are. I mean, isnt this the same way we find bank robbers? By the clothing and or familiar features?

In the follow up to this post "Police investigate rolling gunbattle" they told you WHO identified the vehicles. So here, you've got two witnesses who tried to help and due to the follow up, the people who STILL HAVENT BEEN CAUGHT, can now go after them and their families. That's what usually happens. Trust me, I grew up in the ghetto and now I'm college educated and out of the city but I still have love for the YO!

SO, I hope the police or whomever released their names (Idiots), have protection for them and I hope they dont show up in the paper next as "a drug or gang related crime".

"I considered the federal criminal sentences imposed in Fiscal Year 2000, the most recent year for I had a complete data set.Significantly, FY 2000 involved data for sentences imposed prior to the November 2001 fraud guideline revisions, which substantially enhanced the penalties for fraud even before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed.

According to Commission’s statistics, in FY 2000 federal courts entered convictions for 58,636 individuals.I examined data regarding the length of imprisonment imposed by category of offense: